New lease of life for heart patients
DR BALAKRISHNAN WHO HAS DONE MORE THAN 200 HEART TRANSPLANTS IS SETTING UP A CENTRE IN ABU DHABI
n Indian doctor who has carried out nine heart transplants on Emirati patients this year is setting up a centre in Abu Dhabi.
The doctor has carried out more than 200 transplants since 2000.
Dr K.R. Balakrishnan, a heart transplant surgeon from Fortis Hospital Chennai, is credited with running the biggest and most successful heart transplant programmes in Asia. He holds the record of having conducted the highest number of heart transplants throughout the continent.
Last month he was in the UAE to set up a regional centre for heart diseases in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. “A large number of my patients come from the Middle East, including the UAE and we require a regular lifelong cardiac care follow-up protocol for them. For the sake of their convenience, we are working with Dr Firas Bader of the Cleveland Clinic to have a regional heart transplant follow-up centre,” he told Gulf News.
Outlining the need for heart transplants, he said: “These are patients with endstage heart disease who would have exhausted all avenues for treatments. There are three major categories of patients who typically require a heart transplant. These are patients suffering from: A) Cardiomyopathy owing to genetic mutations, B) Ischemic heart disease where patients may have exhausted the option of angiography, implantation of heart device and C) Patients with multiple congenital heart defects.”
Permanent solution
In all the above cases, patients — whether, adult or children — require a permanent solution to address the issue.
Take the case of Yahya Mubarak Saqr Al Mazroui, 35, working with the UAE military since 2002. Al Mazroui was diagnosed with severe heart failure and biventricular dysfunction. With no history of any cardiac disease in the family of five brothers and seven sisters, Al Mazroui was an exception and had to take an early retirement from the military in 2013.
After he was diagnosed with heart disease in 2008, he start visiting hospitals in the UAE and the UK, seeking medical management of his condition which was contained for some years but started getting worse progressively. He was finally told by his doctors in the UAE that he needed a new heart and they advised him to go to India.
Al Mazroui had to barely wait for three months when he got lucky and received a donor heart. He underwent a heart transplant on August 20, 2017, by Dr Balakrishnan at the Fortis Hosptial, Chennai, and is reported to be doing very well at the hospital.
Talking to Gulf News from his bed, Al Mazroui said: “I feel I am really lucky that I came in time to Chennai and got this heart. I feel perfectly normal and want to thank Dr Balakrishnan for this new lease of life.”
Like Al Mazroui, eight other Emirati patients have received donor hearts under the care of Dr Balakrishnan this year and many of them have since returned to the UAE and are reported to be doing well.
Asian transplant centre
Beginning with affordability and shorter waiting list, to the ease of follow-ups, it makes a lot of sense for patients to opt for this transplant centre in the region.
Dr Balakrishan explained: “It’s a long waiting list for recipients for a donor heart worldwide. In the US for example, it is a two-year waiting period for foreigners, and the cost of a heart transplant is more than $100,000 (Dh367,000), with at least a four-year residence requirement there as there are several follow-ups to be done.
“In India, a heart transplant waiting window for foreigners is only three months. The cost of the transplant is Rs300,000 (Dh17,500). which is onetenth the cost of a transplant in the US. In the follow-up in the US, at least 16 biopsies are conducted in a year to check on the donor heart.
“The cost of these biopsies alone is almost equal to the cost of the transplant. Here in India, we conduct only two biopsies — one at the end of the month after the surgery and one at the end of the year.
“We have published medical research in medical journals to prove that reduction in the number of biopsies has no effect on the survival rates of transplantees.
“As a result, we are able to discharge patients quickly and maintain a follow-up protocol for them. If this regional centre for heart failure is set up in Abu Dhabi, the patients will not have to travel to India and can have their follow ups here.”